Another newbie question

[Elmarto]

My apologies for bombarding you good people with questions, would a mak telescope require collimating?

Thanks for your help!

[LukeSkywatcher]

I think the most simple and most honest answer is maybe YES. Every scope at some stage in its life will/may need to be collimated (even a refractor i believe........but less then any other).

I own 2 refractors,1 reflector and an SCT. The only scope i have collimated is the reflector and the only reason i did that was to learn the process (it didnt need it). I could not even begin to think how to collimate the Refractors or the SCT.

The views from all my scopes look fine to my eyes, so collimation is really not something i worry about.

Wish i could help more.

Paul.

This may help:

http://www.astronomy...telescopes.html

Like refractors, once collimated in the factory when/where they were built, Maks and SCT's really DON'T need collimation................BUT never say never

I may be wrong.

[rowan46]

they should come out of the factory collimated. Most of the cases I have heard of where a mak needs collimating comes from users dismantling them to fix something else. Sct's are much easier to collimate but then again they come out of collimation a lot easier.

[NGC 1502]

My apologies for bombarding you good people with questions, would a mak telescope require collimating?

Thanks for your help!

Most Maksutov scopes will be properly collimated at the factory, and most of them will stay that way unless they are dropped.

There is always the exception of course. You could say the same about refractors (most of the time )

Regards, Ed.

[damnut]

Hi There,

As the secondary mirror is silvered to the back of the meniscus on a mak, then it should be almost impossible to collimate without specialist kit. See article from the mighty Weasner!..

:- http://www.weasner.com/etx/warnings/collimation-warning.html

Cheers

[chiltonstar]

Never try and fix something that ain't broke..........., as they say.

Look at a brightish star at high mag (good seeing required) in and out of focus to see if the diffraction pattern is symmetrical and close to "theory"; if it is, then resist any temptation to tinker.....

Chris

[stem1989]

unless you drop a counter weight on it like I did it will be fine

[cantab]

There're two types of Mak. The Gregory Mak uses a silvered spot on the meniscus for the secondary. The only collimation on that is by adjusting the primary which is a specialist job. The design's known for ruggedness so shouldn't need collimating at all often. The less common Rutten Mak has a separate secondary mounted on the corrector, like with an SCT and can be collimated like an SCT.

[Elmarto]

Thanks for the replies, the reason I asked is because I enquirer about a reflector scope and the sales people recommended a Cheshire collimating tool for another £36. I was also looking at the Mak that was £60 more so for an extra £24 I thought I'd go for the mak!

Just a waiting game now and then wait for a clear night!